Almost positive that movie is based on John C. Lilly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Lilly) If you're remotely interested, I highly recommend reading his books. 'Programming the Human Biocomputer' and 'The Scientist' were great.

If you like that you'll appreciate this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYga-lJOMbE ;)

How about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Lunch